“Okay, okay.” He sat on the bench, and I sat beside him. Then he made a circle in the air. “We’ll do this the way they pitch stories in Hollywood for directors, producers, and actors. Ryder Garfield’s life story. Huck Finn meets Rebel Without a Cause.”
“Huh?”
“That’s the pitch line. Hollywood people need it laid out simply in tags or slogans. First act. When Ryder Garfield was young,” he began, “before Summer was born, his glamorous, world-renowned mother was working a lot. Ryder had a nanny from England, an au pair.”
“That’s why you have that slightly British accent?”
“Does he? Okay, we’ll think about casting a young English actor. Please hold your questions until the end. Don’t you know that most Hollywood producers have a five-minute attention span? Okay. Ryder’s nanny was a bigger influence on him than his own mother, so he picks up some of her accent. He’s a neat little boy, always well dressed and schooled in proper etiquette.”
“Like standing up when a woman comes to his table,” I said.
He shook his head. “If you’re going to write this . . .”
“I’m listening, sorry.”
“As I said, Ryder is with his nanny more than he is with his mother. His nanny is still with them when his sister, Summer, is born. She’s raising the baby, really, because the first chance their mother gets to return to work, she’s out and into the celebrity scene full blast, like someone who has been suffocated because of her pregnancy. Their father, acting all the time, chasing parts, is out as well. Both of their parents, in fact, miss their birthdays occasionally. When someone is young, that hurts, hurts deeply. Back then, Ryder feels sorrier for Summer than for himself. Eventually, he and his sister are old enough to take care of themselves, and their nanny is dismissed. It’s a sad day, because to them, it’s like losing their mother.”
He paused to look at my reaction. I just stared at him quietly, waiting.
“Act Two. Their mother vows to be more of a mother, of course, but things don’t change all that much. There are maids taking up the slack. Even when they go on trips, there is always someone hired to care for both Summer and him, mostly Summer. Coming to their mother with a problem is usually like speaking to a translator. She sends them off to talk to their father or some therapist at the drop of a pin.”
“And their father?”
“Ah. He’s always intent on being a big movie star, you see. There are long periods of time when he isn’t home, and even when he is, he’s out and busy so much. For a joke once, Ryder takes one of his father’s eight-by-twelve head shots and puts it on a piece of wood that he then attaches to a short pole. Using his camera that has a timer, he has Summer and him take pictures with it, making it look as if their father is with them at restaurants or when they go shopping. Their mother thinks it is funny until Ryder puts it on a chair at the dinner table. His father finds out and gives him one of his he-should-feel-sorry-for-him lectures.”
“Feel sorry for him? How did that work?”
“Simple . . . something like your Mr. March. Here he was working so hard to make a success so Ryder’s family could enjoy all of these wonderful things, like big homes, servants, trips, expensive clothes, and here Ryder was being unappreciative. Ryder guesses it eased his father’s conscience.”
“So Ryder doesn’t like his father?”
“Ryder doesn’t know who he is. He thinks his father has treated the parent role as just another role. That leads to another thing he does that gets his father pretty hot.”
“What?”
“He writes a scenario for him, gives his father lines to say. Of course, his father doesn’t see the humor and never gets the point. In short, Ryder Garfield is just as much an orphan as you are. The big difference is that his parents expect him to pretend he’s not. And they wonder why Summer gets into trouble.”
“Is that part of your Act Two?”
“Exactly.”
“What happens to her?”
He smiled. “You don’t know?”
“I know only rumors, Ryder.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Rumors.” He paused. I thought he wasn’t going to speak about her, but then he started again. “She gets pregnant, but she keeps it a secret so long it is almost too late to do anything about it. Their father is the sort of person who would rather ignore a problem, anyway. She takes after him. He thinks he literally expects some writer will come in and do a rewrite of what happens, and he can forget the old version. Anyway, he blames the whole thing on Ryder.”
“Why?”
“He’s her big brother. He should have been watching over her. Ryder’s father forgets how many times Ryder has warned him and his mother about her. The whole thing causes a big embarrassment and cover-up, and they are shipped to another private school.
“At the start of Act Three, his mother and his father expect him to make sure she behaves at Pacifica. There’s a big blow-up between them on the first day of school. I think you saw that in the trailer.”
I put my hand on his arm. I could see how describing all of this as a movie was disturbing him.
“Your parents are so famous everyone at school thinks you have the perfect life,” I said.